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“You know well the roar of Goliath.”

A thought by Max Lucado (2013-04-29) from his book, Facing Your Giants: God Still Does the Impossible (p. 15). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

I’m sure you know the story of David and Goliath.  In a nutshell, it is the story of a teenage shepherd boy who defeated an enemy warrior giant.  We love these kinds of stories, don’t we?  Because the truth is there are some giants in our lives that we need to defeat, aren’t there?

Max says, “Your Goliath doesn’t carry sword or shield; he brandishes blades of unemployment, abandonment, sexual abuse, or depression. Your giant doesn’t parade up and down the hills of Elah; he prances through your office, your bedroom, your classroom. He brings bills you can’t pay, grades you can’t make, people you can’t please, whiskey you can’t resist, pornography you can’t refuse, a career you can’t escape, a past you can’t shake, and a future you can’t face.”

He goes on, “You know Goliath. You recognize his walk and wince at his talk. You’ve seen your Godzilla. The question is, is he all you see? You know his voice— but is it all you hear? David saw and heard more.”

Max later says, “A subplot appears in the story. More than ‘David versus Goliath,’ this is ‘God-focus versus giant-focus.’ David sees what others don’t and refuses to see what others do. All eyes, except David’s, fall on the brutal, hate-breathing hulk. All compasses, sans David’s, are set on the polestar of the Philistine. All journals, but David’s, describe day after day in the land of the Neanderthal. The people know his taunts, demands, size, and strut. They have majored in Goliath.

“David majors in God. He sees the giant, mind you; he just sees God more so. Look carefully at David’s battle cry: ‘You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel’ (1 Samuel 17: 45).”

There will be battles to be fought to defeat our giants.  Let that also be our battle cry today.  Let’s have a God focus instead of a giant focus.


Would you start majoring in God instead of Goliath?
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